Jonathan R. Slater, Ph.D., Associate Professor, has been a full-time member of the SUNY Plattsburgh faculty since 1997. Dr. Slater is the newly appointed director of the college's Jewish Studies Program. As director, Dr. Slater coordinates the Jewish Studies minor and the Rabin Fellowship in Jewish Studies, which encourages full-time faculty to develop curriculum for the minor. He leads Plattsburgh State’s annual Days of Remembrance Holocaust commemoration and oversees the Douglas R. Skopp Creative Competition on the Theme of the Holocaust, held in the Douglas and Evelyne Skopp Holocaust Memorial Gallery in Feinberg Library. Feinberg houses the Rabbi Daniel Price '79 Book Collection along with the online Jewish Studies Research Guide. Dr. Slater also organizes theDouglas R. Skopp Visiting Scholars on the Theme of the Holocaust speaker series. His principal research pursuit in Jewish Studies is the American Mass Media and the Jewish Experience project. In addition to his academic obligations, Dr. Slater advises SUNY Plattsburgh Hillel.Soon after joining the faculty at SUNY Plattsburgh, Dr. Slater developed the Public Relations program in the Department of Communication Studies. Later, he helped to merge the program into the recently formed Department of Journalism and Public Relations, where he now serves as department chair. Dr. Slater has taught a wide variety of courses in public relations and communication. He helped to establish Plattsburgh State’s PRSSA chapter, serving as its first faculty adviser. He is an ex-officio member of PRSA's Board of Ethics and Professional Standards (BEPS) and has served on the board of the Capital Region (NY) PRSA chapter. Dr. Slater led marketing and management courses in the institution’s former graduate program in administration and leadership, which bestowed upon him its Outstanding Faculty award. Dr. Slater is also a past recipient of the Lambda Pi Eta communication honors society Outstanding Faculty award.

Dr. Slater received his Bachelor’s degree from Vassar College and went on to earn both a Master of Public Administration and Ph.D. in Media Ecology from New York University. He also is a former Fellow of SUNY Plattsburgh’s Institute for Ethics in Public Life.